Thursday, February 21, 2008

Farmer's Market and a great pasta dinner!

Yesterday was my Farmer's Market day and I had my oldest one home with me because she had been sick on Tues. Yesterday she was doing well enough to go but I thought she needed a good day to recover and I have also really wanted her to see the Farmer's Market but with it being in the middle of the week they are always in school! So yesterday she finally got to see it. She made friends with a Great Blue Heron that waits beside the shrimp boat, where I get my fresh boat shrimp, waiting for the guy to peel them one and share!!! But she also loved seeing the beautiful fresh produce and helping to pick out the ones that we would have and eat this week!

We were able to get onions, romanesco (yup, Heather you can't scare me with your little critters), spinach, red swiss chard, zucchini, shitakes, cabbage (for Jenn's Cabbage Rolls), basil and cilantro!!! On out way home we stopped at the local U pick farm and got some tomatoes, strawberries, jalapeños, and a really pretty eggplant! Turned out to be a great haul this week as well! We also bought a couple of pounds of the sweetest freshest shrimp I have tasted since living in Daytona and eating the shrimp right fresh from the boats there!

Rigatoni with Squash and Prawns

I needed a plan for dinner though and as luck would have it I was able to find one on a fellow blogger's site! Peter over at Kalofagas - Pursuit of Delicious Foods had posted a recipe last week that I was dying to try Pasta with Squash and Prawns. This recipe was taken from Giada DeLaurentis I already had all of the ingredients but was waiting for the fresh shrimp and basil. Now that I had it it was all a go!This was an incredible recipe. So simple, yet the flavors all blended beautifully. Peter tossed his shrimp in some seasonings but I just left my plain...both ways would be great! Peter's pictures look great so go and check his out as well!

8 comments:

You lucky girl with all those fresh veggies and fresh shrimp too! That all sounds so good. Fresh shrimp is my favorite, just steamed by itself, mix a few herbs with it and put on ice.The pasta looks great. I saw the choc. chip cookies on farmgirl_dk's site. They turned out wonderful looking too. You have everybody cooking up something. I am glad your daughter is feeling better.

ga.farmgirl-what am I going to do though when it gets too hot here to grow anything??? You know what it is like in the summer! BTW those cookies were amazing. I keep wanting to make more but now none of my friends will take them and they are all on Weight Watchers!!!

PeterM-How in the world can you be jealous of shrimp. I was born and raised in TO. I know what you can get there. One visit to St. Lawrence Market and you are set for a month!!! I could live on Peameal Bacon and here no one knows what it is. My Mom did smuggle (shhh...) a couple of pounds here over Christmas so I have my fix.